What is decarboxylation?Give an example for the process.

1 Answer
Jan 20, 2018

Decarboxylation means the removal of carbon dioxide from the carboxyl group of a carboxylic acid.

Explanation:

We get an alkane when we decarboxylate the sodium salt of a carboxylic acid by heating it with soda lime (a 3:1 mixture of caustic soda #"NaOH"# and quicklime #"CaO"#).

#"CH"_3"COONa + NaOH" stackrelcolor(blue)(Δcolor(white)(mm))(→) "CH"_4 + "Na"_2"CO"_3#

The conversion of isocitrate to α-ketoglutarate is a crucial decarboxylation step in the Krebs cycle for the conversion of glucose to #"CO"_2#.

www.chem.uwec.edu

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